Connection key to North West growth
CHEAPER power, water storage infrastructure and a sustainable workforce were the key findings of a six-day trip to North West Queensland.
Townsville Enterprise has held key talks with Northern Australia Minister David Littleproud to help unlock the North West, which is one of the biggest economic drivers in Queensland. TEL CEO Claudia Brumme-smith said connecting the North West to Townsville would be key to further growth in the region.
“The biggest one for
Townsville to consider is the efficiency and affordability of rail,” Ms Brumme-smith said.
“We had the Mayor of Richmond saying the quicker the port access rail corridor can get in, the better.”
She said the North West was ready to grow, and connectivity would make that happen.
“They have plans to grow but they need some certain enablers, which are, low cost power, connectivity to the grid, they want water security, … and red and green tape are very important, especially around the environmental laws,” Ms Brumme-smith
said. “They have a real demand for training facilities out west, they cannot get mining engineers, they can’t get sparkies, they’re in need of everything.”
Mr Littleproud said the government needed to stop getting in the way of developing the North West, and that the supply chains were crucial to the region.
However, he stopped short of saying the Townsville Eastern Access Rail Corridor would go ahead.
Mr Littleproud said one of the issues that the government was trying to address were the gaps in funding,
which it was trying to plug with the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.
He said there was also work going on to ensure the pivotal links in infrastructure, including rail, roads and the port were in place.
“We’re a nation of 26 million people who produce enough food for 80 million people so we have to get our product out,” Mr Littleproud said.
“The only way to do that and to de-risk a lot of the investment that people want to make, whether it be mining, whether it be agriculture is by filling those gaps, to give
them the confidence to make the investment.”
He said the government needed to prioritise what would have the best return for the Australian taxpayer.
Mr Littleproud said state governments needed to be “more courageous” when it came to water infrastructure.
He added that the federal government had invested in the Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project and CopperString to help bring cheaper power to the North West, but the state government needed to make sure the infrastructure was there to connect it to the grid.